Adjustable back brace

ABSTRACT

An adjustable length spinal brace includes an elongate belt and an adjustment plate having spaced apart belt passage slits through which the belt is passed and belt engagement members that are pivotally adjustable relative to the plate to engage or disengage the belt. The belt engagement members are engaged with the belt to maintain a desired length of the brace, and are disengaged from the belt to permit adjustment of the length of the brace.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application62/114,345, filed Feb. 10, 2015, entitled Adjustable Back Brace, andincorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

FIELD

This disclosure relates to the field of orthopedic bracing. Moreparticularly, this disclosure relates to adjustable circumferentiallength lumbar sacral braces.

BACKGROUND

Improvement is desired in the provision of soft and flexible braces forsupporting the thoraco-lumbro-sacral spine. While conventional lumbarbelt type braces provide support, improvement is desired.

The present disclosure advantageously provides a soft and flexiblelumbo-sacral brace to which can be added desired rigidity in ananterior, posterior and lateral portion of the belt adjacent the spine,and which is adjustable to fit a wide range of waist sizescircumferentially. One benefit of the flexibility of this brace designis a reduction of a large inventory of various sizes.

SUMMARY

The above and other needs are met by an adjustable circumferentiallength spinal brace. The brace includes an elongate belt and a beltadjustment plate.

The belt adjustment plate has an outer side and an opposite patientfaceable side configured to be positionable adjacent a spine or backportion of a patient. The belt adjustment plate has spaced apart beltpassage slits through which the belt is received and belt engagementmembers that are pivotally adjustable relative to the plate to engage ordisengage the belt.

The belt engagement members are engaged with the belt to maintain adesired length of the brace, and are disengaged from the belt to permitadjustment of the length of the brace.

Braces according to the disclosure are advantageous as compared to priordevices. For example, the brace length may be easily and uniformlyreduced or increased in length from a central location. This isaccomplished by disengaging the belt engagement members, pulling acentral portion of the belt to uniformly reduce the overall length, orpulling on each end to increase the length, and then engaging the beltengagement members.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Further advantages of the disclosure are apparent by reference to thedetailed description when considered in conjunction with the figures,which are not to scale so as to more clearly show the details, whereinlike reference numbers indicate like elements throughout the severalviews, and wherein:

FIGS. 1 and 2 show an adjustment plate component of an adjustable braceaccording to the disclosure.

FIGS. 3 and 4 are front and rear views showing a belt componentinstalled on the adjustment plate component.

FIG. 5 shows an assembled adjustable brace according to the disclosure.

FIG. 6 shows the brace of FIG. 5 with a cover thereof opened with thebrace set at a large size setting.

FIG. 7 shows adjustment of the brace of FIG. 5 to a smaller sizesetting.

FIG. 8 shows the brace at the smaller size setting.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to the drawings, there is shown an adjustable lengthlumbar sacral brace 10. The brace 10 includes an adjustment plate 12 anda belt 14.

The adjustment plate 12 is configured to be located adjacent the smallof the back of a patient, and permit adjustment of the effective lengthof the belt 14. That is, the effective length of the belt 14 is adjustedutilizing the adjustment plate 12 so that the brace 10 desirably fitsthe waist of the patient.

The adjustment plate 12 may be of molded plastic construction andincludes an outer side 12 a and a patient facing side 12 b. The plate 12includes a mildly u-shaped or curved central channel portion 20 flankedon either side by planar portions 22 and 24. The curvature of thechannel portion 20 is towards the patient facing side 12 b. Belt passageslits 22 a and 24 a are located on the planar portions 22 and 24,respectively, adjacent the channel portion 20. Hinged belt engagementmembers 26 and 28 are defined adjacent the lateral edges of the planarportions 22 and 24, respectively.

The belt engagement members 26 and 28 are provided as doors that pivotrelative to open spaces 26 a and 28 a, respectively, of the planarportions 22 and 24. The engagement members 26 and 28 pivot to opentowards the outer side 12 a of the plate 12. The patient facing side 12b of the engagement members 26 and 28 include a hook material thereonfor releasably engaging a loop material of the belt 14, as explainedmore fully below. The patient facing side 12 b of the adjustment plate12 is positioned during use of the brace 10 adjacent the small of theback of the patient.

Flexible fingers 30 are located on the back of the channel portion 20 toprovide a comfortable interface between the small of the back of thepatient and the patient facing side 12 b of the plate 12. The fingers 30are preferably adjacent the slits 22 a and 24 a and extend the height ofthe plate 12. Size indicator indicia 32 is located on the outer side 12a for cooperating with size indicating zones of the belt 14, asexplained more fully below.

The belt 14 is an elongate and flexible member preferably made of a softfabric surrounding a batting or padding, such as a soft foam or spacerfabric. The belt 14 has opposite ends that releasably overlap orotherwise cooperate to install the belt about the waist of a user. Toprovide the brace 10 to adjust between waist sizes of from about 26inches to about 44 inches, the belt 14 may have an overall length ofabout 48 inches.

The belt 14 preferably includes indicia or indicium, such as lengthdemarcations or color zones or the like, that cooperate with the sizeindicator indicia 32 of the plate 12, to facilitate selection of desiredsize of the brace 10. The exterior of the belt 14 may be made of a loopmaterial or a strip of loop material 34 may be located on the exteriorsurface of the belt 14 to cooperate with the hook material located onthe patient facing side 12 b of the engagement members 26 and 28. Amidpoint of the length of the belt 14 preferably includes a handle 36 toidentify the midpoint and to facilitate adjustment of the length of thebrace 10 as described more fully below.

The brace 10 is assembled by passing the belt 14 through the slits 22 aand 24 a to span the belt across the channel 20 on the outer side 12 aof the plate 12. Initially, the belt 14 is oriented so that the handle36 is aligned with the middle of the channel 20, which provides thebrace 10 at a maximum length. As will be noted, the loop material 34 isengaged by the hook material located on the patient facing side 12 b ofthe engagement members 26 and 28, which are in their closed positions soas to be flat with the planar portions 22 and 24. In this orientation,the brace 10 is maintained at the maximum length.

Additional securement of the belt 14, and hence the brace 10, at adesired length is provided by a hinged cover 40. The cover 40 isdesirably made of a soft fabric material, but may be of otherconstruction. The cover 40 is hingedly coupled to the plate 12 and foldsover the portions of the belt 14 located in the channel 20. The cover 40may include hook material to also cooperate with the loop material 34 ofthe belt 14, and maintain the cover 40 closed against the belt 14 and inreleasable frictional engagement therewith. In this regard, it will beunderstood that the indicated hook and loop materials may be reversed,and that other cooperating fastener devices may be utilized.

To shorten the effective length of the belt 14, and hence of the brace10, the cover 40 is lifted and the engagement members 26 and 28 arehingedly pivoted to their open positions. This disengages the hook andloop engagement of the belt 14 therefrom. The handle 36 of the belt 14is then grasped and pulled upwardly, such as shown in FIG. 7.

As will be appreciated, this uniformly reduces the length from each endof the belt 14 and accumulates excess portions of the belt 14 adjacentthe channel 20. The engagement members 26 and 28 are then closed tomaintain the effective belt length. The excess belt material may befolded or the like as shown in FIG. 8 to neatly store the excessmaterial in the channel 22, and the cover 40 closed to overlie theexcess material and otherwise secure the brace 10 at the adjustedlength. This procedure may be repeated or reversed as desired to adjustthe length of the brace 10 to be incrementally longer or shorter.

The foregoing description of preferred embodiments for this disclosurehas been presented for purposes of illustration and description. It isnot intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosure to the preciseform disclosed. Obvious modifications or variations are possible inlight of the above teachings. The embodiments are chosen and describedin an effort to provide the best illustrations of the principles of thedisclosure and its practical application, and to thereby enable one ofordinary skill in the art to utilize the disclosure in variousembodiments and with various modifications as are suited to theparticular use contemplated. All such modifications and variations arewithin the scope of the disclosure as determined by the appended claimswhen interpreted in accordance with the breadth to which they arefairly, legally, and equitably entitled.

1. An adjustable length spinal brace, comprising: an elongate belt; anda belt adjustment plate having an outer side and an opposite patientfaceable side configured to be positionable adjacent a spine or backportion of a patient, the belt adjustment plate having spaced apart beltpassage slits through which the belt is received and belt engagementmembers that are pivotally adjustable relative to the plate to engage ordisengage the belt, wherein the belt engagement members are engaged withthe belt to maintain a desired length of the brace, and are disengagedfrom the belt to permit adjustment of the length of the brace to eitherlengthen or shorten the length of the brace.
 2. The brace of claim 1,wherein the belt adjustment plate includes a curved central channelportion flanked on either side by planar portions, with the belt passageslits located on the planar portions adjacent the channel portion, andthe belt engagement members are located adjacent lateral edges of theplanar portions.
 3. The brace of claim 2, wherein the planar portionsinclude open spaces, and the belt engagement members comprise doors thatpivot to open towards the outer side of the plate.
 4. The brace of claim1, wherein a midpoint of the belt includes a handle.
 5. The brace ofclaim 4, wherein the handle is aligned with the middle of the curvedcentral channel portion when the brace is at maximum length.